Montreal’s Wasiu Raps In The 8th Dimension On “Outer Space”

“Way up north, we on top of the globe.”

Toronto isn't the only city in Canada with promising rappers. Montreal is bubbling too, but Wasiu wants you to know he's not of his hometown. “Outer Space,” the rapper's new music video premiering today on The FADER, places Wasiu in a room with an imposing monolithic cuboid to get lit with. The track's mood is as stable as fog, going from cold and steely to creepy carnival in half a bar. But drastic changes seems to be something Wasiu relishes: “On my planet all my people come alive with the sight of the moon.”

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Reached by email, Wasiu introduced his concept of the “MTLien” (his mixtape MTLiens 2 is coming soon) and drew parallels between southern hip-hop and Montreal's scene.

The objective of the song is to serve this idea that me and the Montréal scene are invading hip-hop and the music industry by force. Of course, MTLiens is a play on Outkast's classic ATLiens album. Whereas ATLiens had a more welcoming atmosphere and southern hospitality to it, MTLiens is the polar opposite—just as MTL is geographically to ATL. Just as hip-hop was dominated by east coast/west coast in the mid-'90s and Atlanta was under that shadow, Montreal is under Toronto's shadow from being recognized as a scene.